Chris K. is working on a paper about national identity in medieval England, so I, once again, am filling in on PubliCalendar duties. Apologies for the lack of hip-hop shows and weirdo lectures; Chris will be back soon, I promise. Now, please enjoy some civic engagement and environmental propaganda:

1. The 34th District Democrats will look back on a year in which one of their own members, Dow Constantine, ascended to the King County Executive's seat, while two others, Greg Nickels and Tom Carr, were defeated, at their annual holiday potluck tonight at 6pm in West Seattle. Bring food to share.

Tonight, 6 pm, The Hall at Fauntleroy,  9131 California Avenue SW

2. Starting in about half an hour, the city council's open government committee will hold a meeting to talk about the council's open-source initiative, new public disclosure policies, and its new public engagement plan, which I wrote about here .

Today, 2 pm, City Hall, 600 Fourth Ave.

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3. As tens of thousands of world and environmental leaders gather in Copenhagen to discuss solutions to climate change, acclaimed science writer Richard Ellis stops by Town Hall to read from his book On Thin Ice: The Changing World of the Polar Bear, which argues that the extinction of polar bears and the disappearance of the ice caps is far from inevitable. Saving polar bears and their habitat, however, will require significant steps on humanity's part, including listing them as endangered—a move that would put the bears' of W off-limits to oil drilling.

Tonight, 7:30 pm, Downstairs at Town Hall, 1119 8th Avenue, $5. Tickets available at Brown Paper Tickets.

4. Another nonfiction reading, this one at University Book Store: Alvin Ziontz, who represented Indian tribes in the Pacific Northwest for more than 30 years, reads from his book A Lawyer in Indian Country. Ziontz represented tribes in several landmark legal cases, including one in 1974 that restored treaty fishing rights to the Pacific Northwest tribes. Most recently, he represented the Makah tribe of Washington, which sought to resume its traditional whale hunts in the 1990s.

Tonight, 7 pm, University Book Store, 4326 University Way NE

5. More than 50 Capitol Hill galleries, bars, coffee shops and retailers will participate in tonight's Capitol Hill Blitz , a monthly art walk and open house showcasing the neighborhood's visual, musical, literary and performing arts. Open houses are concentrated in three areas—Olive Way, Pike/Pine, and 15th/Volunteer Park—so you won't have to schlep across town in the cold.

Tonight, 5-8 pm, locations all over Capitol Hill.

6. TechFlash—the must-read Puget Sound Business Journal tech blog started by former P-I writers John Cook and Todd Bishop a little over a year ago—is having its anniversary and holiday bash tonight, featuring their first-ever Seattle tech trivia competition.